Barenaked Ladies

Barenakeds – talk to the butt

The first time Barenaked Ladies (BNL) ever played under that name, in 1988, it was at a benefit for Second Harvest, a food bank that turns unused fresh food from city restaurants and grocery stores into meals for the hungry. Its all down to their leader Steven Page, interviewed here.

From tour buses run on biodiesel to extensive concert-venue recycling programs, the modern BNL are committed to making their tours as green as possible. With the help of Reverb, the musicians are offsetting the power consumed at each show – as well as a portion of the carbon emissions generated from their travel on tour buses and planes – with renewable energy. Each concert also features an eco-village, where fans can learn more about the planet, plus buy stickers to offset the CO2 pollution generated by their own drives to the venue.

Once the band clicked, Steven Page recalls “doing lots of events for groups like Evergreen and Bring Back the Don.

“It was a positive time back then in the late ’80s and early ’90s – the second wave of environmentalism, the beginning of Earth Day. It was a time when those of us living in Toronto could be rightly proud of having a fairly comprehensive recycling program.”

But as the years went by, Page grew disheartened as he saw the city he loved “living on its old reputation for too long.”

The controversy over the Kyoto Accord shoved the issue front and centre again, with Page – well known for his band’s ecological bent by this time – lending his support to the Sierra Club of Canada’s pro-ratification efforts. That took his involvement to a new level.

“I was fascinated with Canada’s role in environmental stewardship,” he says, a bit sadly. “And I saw how even though the nation’s people and a lot of its businesses were on side, the government kept dropping the ball.”

And to Page, this is no mere issue of partisan politics.

“The Liberals dragged their feet like crazy,” he states, “and I think even (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper now knows the mess we’re in. All of those ‘made in Canada’ promises are proving to be a big disappointment.

“And at the Commonwealth talks in Bali (last November and December), he really could have and should have done a lot more. We no longer have the right to the superiority he claims.”

Page travels a lot and sees the rest of the world changing.

“We always used to think we were so superior to America on these issues. Well, it’s time for us to wake up.

“I was just out in Portland and Seattle where there’s free public transit in places and a direct link to the airport, enabling you to get there quickly, cleanly and cheaply.

He drives a hybrid car, uses solar energy in his home and when his band Barenaked Ladies go on tour, their vans are powered by biofuel. If you want to be a groupie, you better be prepared to compost.

So today’s Earth Hour isn’t just a trendy attempt at ecological reform for him and his family, but the kind of thing they practise all the time.

The charming singer has been working at saving our planet since he was a kid, the legacy of his left-leaning, schoolteacher parents.

“I knew people who were into recycling really early on,” he recalls. “Back when you had to be active to be green. Although, come to think of it, a lot of the green practices from my childhood were exercises in frugality – saving packaging and turning off electric lights when we weren’t using them.

“My parents were just instilling in us a sense of the importance of not wasting things, and ultimately, that’s the foundation the movement is built on.”

Those childhood lessons stuck with Page and when he became a musician, he found himself not only spreading the word, but practising what he preached.

Learn more: reverbrock.org/barenakedplanet